Most of the 3,600 complaints had been received by Tuesday afternoon over an alleged invasion of Prince Harry's privacy by publishing the pictures.

However, the PCC generally does not investigate third party complaints. The PCC said Prince Harry's representatives had not complained as of Tuesday afternoon.

The last time the PCC received more than 1,000 complaints about an individual story was in May, when the Sun ran a front page splash about England football manager Roy Hodgson, headlined "Bwing on the Euwos". This was not investigated by the PCC.

The Sun was the only British newspaper to reproduce the grainy mobile phone images of Harry after they emerged on the US celebrity gossip website TMZ last week.

The News International title defied legal warnings from Clarence House to print the pictures, which it defended as justified in the public interest.

The bold move won the backing of News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch on Saturday, when he said the publication was important to make a point about the lack of free press in Britain.

While the Sun has remained unapologetic about its decision to publish, several MPs and celebrities have said the paper overstepped the mark.

"The pictures were available on the net if you wanted to see them and if you wanted to form your own opinion. I don't think they [the Sun] needed to go that step further to print them."

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